56187Worthington, Minnesota

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 56187.

47out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 9% of 5,298 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity5826th of 6,210 published ZIP areas27
Schools3758th of 4,422 published ZIP areas24
Growth4773rd of 5,428 published ZIP areas26
Housing affordabilityTop 20% of 6,685 published ZIP areas95
Climate6674th of 6,789 published ZIP areas53
Physical resilienceTop 48% of 6,709 published ZIP areas60
Access6239th of 6,791 published ZIP areas64
Economic stability5129th of 6,742 published ZIP areas44
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published ZIP profiles: unemployment is 5.0% and the Opportunity signal places 56187 in the bottom 6%.

Residential permitting has slowed: 11 units authorized over the past twelve months, 88% below the prior year.

Housing is more affordable relative to local incomes than in most published city profiles: rent takes 17% of median household income and the median home is 3.4 times it.

At a glance

Population
15,214
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$64,326
Bottom 38% nationally
Density
90/sq mi
168.7 sq mi of land
Median age
34.0
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
Worthington
Minnesota
Metro area
Worthington, MN
Nearest major airport
FSD
58 mi · Joe Foss Fld
Median home value
$219,000
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 5.0% is lower than 28% of the 6,544 measured US ZIP areas.

Employment fell 2.9% over the past year, to 10,356 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$5,689$64,326Bottom 38%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,789$29,235Bottom 24%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate16.3%Top 27%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute18.7 minBottom 10%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher18.4%Bottom 35%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment10,356Bottom 2%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-1.5%Bottom 26%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-2.9%Bottom 11%June 2026
Labor force10,896Bottom 2%June 2026
Labor force participation60.7%Top 50%2024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)0.5%Top 31%June 2026
Unemployment rate5.0%Top 28%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202464k55k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $64,326 in the 2024 ACS 5-Year. Consecutive releases share four years of sample, so AreaProfile shows them as a record of successive estimates and does not compute a year-over-year change from them.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not publish labor-force data for ZIP areas. This is the figure for Worthington, MN, the city containing this ZIP code.

21% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 31% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 14.0 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
7
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
14.0
across all schools here
Math proficiency
21.0%
Bottom 11% in Minnesota
Reading proficiency
30.5%
Bottom 13% in Minnesota
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
WORTHINGTON SENIOR HIGHWORTHINGTON PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT1,11817.7
Intermediate SchoolWORTHINGTON PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT70514.1
PRAIRIE ELEMENTARYWORTHINGTON PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT69011.927%25%
WORTHINGTON MIDDLEWORTHINGTON PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT66415.115%37%
Learning CenterWORTHINGTON PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT826.8
EARLY CHILDHOODWORTHINGTON PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT404.4
Learning Center NightWORTHINGTON PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT36

67.6% of students here are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. That describes the circumstances families arrive with rather than how the schools perform, which is why AreaProfile shows it and does not score it.

Public schools only, from the NCES Common Core of Data. Schools are placed by ZIP code, so this is which schools are in this place rather than which one a particular address is zoned for — district boundaries do not follow municipal ones, and enrollment zones change. Fully virtual schools are excluded: they enroll students from across the state while reporting one administrative address, and counting them here would describe a school population this place does not have. The assessment covers grades 3 through 8, so a high school shows no proficiency figure — a dash in those columns means the test was not given at that school, not that it performed badly. Proficiency is measured against Minnesota’s own standard, so it compares cleanly within the state and only broadly against other states; AreaProfile therefore ranks it within state. The directory is current, while the proficiency figures are from the last school year with national coverage before the pandemic interrupted testing.

Housing & affordability

How it’s calculated →

Median rent of $925 takes 17% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.4 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
17.3%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.4×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$925
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$219,000
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income3.40Top 42%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate69.3%Bottom 28%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±1425,513Top 26%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$111$925Bottom 40%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$16,992$219,000Top 50%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income17.3%Bottom 47%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate8.4%Bottom 39%2024 ACS 5-Year

Both affordability measures come from the same ACS release as the income they are compared with, so the comparison is like for like. They describe housing cost against local earnings and are not a cost-of-living index — transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes are not included, and a place can look affordable here and still be expensive to live in for reasons this does not capture.

Growth & development

How it’s calculated →
Development Momentum
26/ 100
Ranks 4773 of 5,428 published city profiles

An AreaProfile calculation combining permit volume per resident, its direction over one and three years, population change and employment growth. Permit volume alone is not the measure.

New construction is predominantly single-family: only 0% of permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes.

At 0.8 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US ZIP areas.

Units permitted
11
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
0.8
Bottom 21% nationally
Year over year
−88%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings

The Building Permits Survey is not published for ZIP areas. This is the figure for Worthington, MN, the city containing this ZIP code.

Weather & climate

5 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 82°F and January a low of 5°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 30.5 inches, including 45.2 inches of snow.

-10°10°30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station WORTHINGTON 2 NNE, 1.5 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND5.2"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation30.5"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall45.2"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low5°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high82°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing57°F1991-2020 Normals

Climate figures are thirty-year normals, not current conditions. They describe what a typical year looks like rather than what the weather is doing today.

Physical risk

60 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are tornado, cold wave and hail.

Overall hazard risk is lower than 74% of measured US ZIP areas.

HailElevated
Winter weatherModerate
Cold waveModerate
Ice stormModerate
TornadoHigh
Strong windHigh
Heat waveModerate

Low or minimal exposure: drought, inland flooding, lightning, landslide, wildfire, earthquake.

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA publishes at county level. ZIP values are the land-area-weighted mean of the counties the ZIP Code Tabulation Area intersects. Expected annual loss is not allocated below county level. FEMA does not endorse this presentation. Higher physical resilience means lower exposure.

These are deaths, not offences. AreaProfile does not publish reported crime, and this is not a substitute for it — it says nothing about burglary, theft or assault.

Nobles County records 0.0 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, lower than most counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 10.1 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 0.0 per 100,000 residents in Nobles County.

Homicide
0.0
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
10.1
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
0.0
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
15.3
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths

Firearm deaths count every intent together, and nationally the majority are suicides rather than homicides. The two columns overlap and should not be added.

Age-adjusted rates from provisional death certificate records, published by the CDC for Nobles County as a whole — these rates are not published below county level. A county can hold both a dense city centre and a suburb whose experience of it is nothing alike, so this describes the county around 56187 rather than 56187 itself. That is why AreaProfile shows these figures and does not put them in the Area Score. Where fewer than ten deaths were recorded the count is suppressed at source, and a rate built on single figures moves sharply between releases. What this measure has that reported crime does not: a death certificate is filed whether or not the local police agency submitted a return that year, so the figures stay comparable between places and over time.

What this profile does not cover

Three things people look for are missing from every AreaProfile page, and each is missing for a reason rather than by oversight. The Area Score is calculated without them and the weighting is documented on the methodology page.

Reported crime
The FBI’s Crime Data Explorer is the only source for reported offences with national coverage and a published method, and it requires an API key AreaProfile does not hold. Arrest counts, news volume and commercial “safety scores” are not substituted in the meantime. What is published above under Safety is a different measurement — deaths rather than offences, from death certificates rather than police returns — and it covers no property crime at all.
Taxes
No tax dataset has met the source admission test for coverage, transparent methodology and update cadence. Nothing here is individualized tax advice.
Full cost of living
No public source publishes one with national coverage and a documented method. Housing affordability above is computed from published rent, price and income, and excludes transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes — commuting cost in particular tends to offset suburban housing savings.

Access

2 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 58 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Joe Foss FldFSD58 mi9,000 ft
Sioux Gateway/Brig General Bud Day FldSUX94 mi9,002 ft
Minneapolis-St Paul Intl/Wold-ChamberlainMSP146 mi11,006 ft

Airport identity, position and runway data come from the FAA. “Major airport” is an AreaProfile classification — a public-use civil airport with a paved runway of at least 8,000 feet — not an FAA hub designation. Distances are straight-line, not driving distance.

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Area Score
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Data & methodology

Used forSourceSource periodUpdated
AccessFederal Aviation Administration
Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service
NASR current cycle28-day NASR cycle
Physical riskFederal Emergency Management Agency
National Risk Index
National Risk Index December 2025 (v1.20.0)Periodic dataset versions (v1.20.0 current)
ClimateNOAA National Centers for Environmental Information
U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020 (Monthly)
1991-2020 NormalsEvery ten years (next release follows the 2001–2030 period)
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Local Area Unemployment Statistics
June 2026Monthly
DemographicsU.S. Census Bureau
Population Estimates Program
July 1, 2024 estimateAnnual (vintage released each spring)
DevelopmentU.S. Census Bureau
Building Permits Survey
12 months ending July 2026Monthly, roughly three weeks after the reference month
Demographics, Housing, Income, JobsU.S. Census Bureau
American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (Table-Based Summary File)
2024 ACS 5-YearAnnual (5-year estimates released each December)
safetyU.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics
Provisional county-level mortality by intent
April, 2025 to March, 2026Quarterly, with a rolling twelve-month window alongside complete calendar years
schoolsU.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics
Common Core of Data and EDFacts assessments
2019-20 school year; 2024-25 school yearDirectory annually; assessment results as EDFacts releases them

Profile recalculated August 30, 2026. Recalculation is not the same as new source data — each figure above shows the period its source actually covers. Read the full methodology or browse every source.

56187 vs Worthington

How this ZIP area compares with Worthington as a whole. Both figures come from the same ACS release, so the comparison is like for like.

56187
Worthington
Median household income
$64,326
vs
$61,797
Per capita income
$29,235
vs
$27,450
Population density
90/sq mi
vs
1,733/sq mi
Median home value
$219,000
vs
$210,300
Median gross rent
$925
vs
$938
Homeownership rate
69.3%
vs
67.2%
Bachelor's degree or higher
18.4%
vs
16.8%
Poverty rate
16.3%
vs
17.6%
Median age
34.0
vs
33.5

Some demographic statistics use Census ZIP Code Tabulation Areas, which approximate but do not exactly match USPS ZIP delivery geography. See the methodology for how AreaProfile maps between them.